Angus Scrimm is the movie boogeyman behind the character of The Tall Man from the Phantasm franchise. Scrimm passed away on January 9, 2016. Phantasm is about the Tall Man who is a mysterious grave robber and two individuals raging a war to protect everyone from the Tall Man and his minions. Watch as Minty Comedic Arts share these fun things about Phantasm. Below the video, I briefly summarize each Phantasm fun fact.

Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Phantasm

Director/writer Don Coscarelli came up with the idea for Phantasm as a teenager after having a nightmare where he was being chased around endless corridors by a floating chrome sphere.

Don Coscarelli got the movie title Phantasm from famous horror writer Edgar Allan Poe where Phantasm was used numerous times in his work.

The Tall Man’s minion were all performed by children due to their small sizes.

Universal picked up the Phantasm sequel and continued the franchise starting with Phantasm II (1988).

The Tall Man played by actor Angus Scrimm is 6’4" and had to use camera tricks to make him seem taller, scarier, and more imposing.

The original Phantasm (1979) cut was over 3 hours long and director/writer Coscarelli brought it down to 1 hour 29 minutes. Some of the cut scenes were used in Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998).

The original Phantasm (1979) was rated X because of one scene where a guy died and wet himself. An L.A. Times critic contacted the rating people and asked them to lower that classification granting the film an R rating.

The lost Phantasm film titled Phantasm 1999 AD never got past production because of the high budget of $10 million requirements to film.

A young Brad Pitt almost played the role of Michael after Universal bought over the Phantasm franchise for Phantasm II (1988).

Actor Reggie Bannister told director/writer Coscarelli that it would be great to have a modern Something This Way Wicked Comes movie adaptation and thus the wheels started turning for the Phantasm film. Disney had the rights to the book, so Coscarelli created an original story.

Directed by Don Coscarelli

Official Synopsis: Mike, a young teenage boy who has just lost his parents, afraid to lose his brother follow him to a funeral, where Mike witnesses the Tall Man lifting a coffin on his own. Mike decides to investigate, and discovers that the Tall Man, protected by his flying spheres, is shrinking dead bodies down to half their normal size and reanimating them as slaves. It is then up to Mike, his brother, and Reggie the ice cream man to stop the Tall man.